Gloucester and Rockport residents have reported to police several instances in the past week of people saying they were selling items to raise money for local charities, but are really scams.

Wednesday afternoon, Stephanie Walters, the development and volunteer coordinator for Pathways for Children on Emerson Avenue, told police two women were in Wingaersheek Beach area claiming to sell magazines for the preschool program.

Walters sent an e-mail out Wednesday telling those on the Pathways e-mail list that the nonprofit organization is not soliciting donations at this time and urged residents to report suspicious fundraising activity to the police.

"These salespeople used extremely aggressive techniques, claimed to know some of the neighbors, and talked about the benefits Pathways would receive from their purchases," Walters wrote. "We want to inform you that Pathways is in no way connected with this company nor would we ever employ such an approach to fundraising."

Walters is disappointed that the children's program has been targeted.

She was told that the magazines were being sold in the range of $30 to $40 for a year's subscription and that some buyers gave the sellers money above the cost because they thought the donations would go straight to Pathways.

"We would never release our donors' names or promote our employees to use those high-pressure approaches to fundraising," Walters said. "I think that it's terrible. Pathways has become a very popular nonprofit in the area and it is horrible that people are taking advantage of that. We feel bad that anybody that gave their money to this is not going to go to Pathways."

Gloucester city ordinances require any solicitors to check in with the police before they begin.

In Rockport late last week, four individuals were spoken to by police after residents complained the two young men and two young women were trying to sell magazine subscriptions, the profits for which they said were going toward a trip to Ireland.

Two males on foot in the area of Squam Road were spoken to by police and left the area, only to attempt the same thing later on King Street. Officers also spoke to two women who gave police the same story while selling subscriptions near the school complex and Seagull Street. The young women were spoken to again later on Jerden's Lane.

Gloucester residents who purchased subscriptions said they received a receipt from the name of the business Xtreme Marketing Inc. Some of the residents, leery of the transactions, said they researched the company online and found it to have three other aliases, all of which come up on Web sites that details deceptive sales practices.

Correspondent Nate Rice and staff writer Jonathan L'Ecuyer also contributed to this report.

Ingredients of the scam

Xtreme Marketing Inc., a traveling magazine sales crew out of Sugar Hill, Ga., clears magazine sales orders through United Family Circulation. It is also known as Ultimate Power Sales Inc., and Ultimate Empire Sales Inc. The company uses college-aged salespeople who go door to door selling subscriptions. The salespeople say the magazines or books will arrive within 120 days but they never do. When customers try to call the service number on the receipt, they get a machine saying the person they have dialed is unavailable or it just rings with no one ever picking up.

Back stories sales people use:

* Raising money for baseball or soccer team trip to a championship game somewhere.

* Just moved to the neighborhood and are raising money for different foundations; subscription profits to go to those foundations.

* Collecting donations for the local boys and girls clubs.

* Raising money for soccer scholarships.

Source: www.ripoffreport.com